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Sun and Sail Club Premiere “Krokodil Dental Plan” from The Great White Dope

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Tony Adolescent makes a good X-factor. The lead singer of long-running Cali punkers The Adolescents — aka Tony Cadena — brings not only a distinct personality to Sun and Sail Club‘s second album, The Great White Dope (out May 12), and what seems to be a genuine love of wordplay, but his approach meshes well with the speedier material conjured this time around by guitarist Bob Balch and drummer Scott Reeder (both Fu Manchu) and bassist Scott Thomas Reeder (also Fireball MinistryThe ObsessedKyuss, etc.). As with Sun and Sail Club‘s 2013 debut, Mannequin (discussed here), it’s Balch‘s guitar and songwriting as the driving force behind the project, which here makes its way efficiently through a 27-minute full-length, but ultimately, it’s how they spend that time that has shifted. Mannequin had no shortage of tight rhythmic turns, but was more progressively styled, and Balch‘s vocoder vocals gave an otherworldly aspect to the instrumentals they topped. Here, Cadena‘s voice acts as ringleader for a forward charge that blends raw punk and heavy rock tonal sensibilities, and the result is an album intense and weighted in kind.

It has an anchor at the end of each side in longer, groovier cuts “Fever Blister and the Great White Dope” and album-closer “Cypherpunk Roulette,” but even those have a sharpness to their charge that melds smoothly with the short bursts of “Full Tilt Panic,” “Inside Traitor Outside View,” “Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight,” and opener “Krokodil Dental Plan.” One barely has time to blink before the first three tracks of The Great White Dope have passed, or at least that’s how it seems going by tempo, but for all the rush, Sun and Sail Club are still writing songs, and where the first record carried an exploratory sensibility as it unfolded, this time around the material is executed with a greater sense of command and purpose. Maybe that’s a result of Balch writing in more of a comfort zone — Fu Manchu certainlysun and sail club the great white dope has its punk side, and there are moments here amid the hooks of “Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol” (a bit of a vocoder return at the end is a nice touch to nod at Mannequin) and “Alien Rant Factory” that bring that to mind — or maybe it’s just a function of the band being more comfortable working together in the studio. Either way, it works to The Great White Dope‘s advantage, and as “Migraine with a Chainsaw” recalls Black Flag‘s penchant for playing effective slowdowns against energetic thrust, Sun and Sail Club‘s fluidity manages to express itself in barely over a minute’s time.

They wouldn’t be the first tight-knit punk band in the universe, but that’s the point. What ultimately brings together Mannequin and The Great White Dope is the precision with which the second album follows up on the first. The handclaps and stomping chorus of “Level up and Shut it Down,” the near-bombtone chug of “Fever Blister and the Great White Dope” and “Cypherpunk Roulette”‘s slower moments — as well as the almost Alice in Chainsian melodicism of the latter and its delving in its second half into vocoder speech and emergent feedback drone and airy guitar noodling on a long fade to end the album — have such a sense of purpose as relates to the album as a whole, that it highlights the notion that Sun and Sail Club has become something more than a way for Balch to explore different guitar techniques. Even if they do a third record and it’s completely different than The Great White Dope, it’s the album itself here that’s the experiment, and that’s a considerable step in progression for Sun and Sail Club as a band. And to be blunt about it, they sound like they’re having a complete blast playing this stuff — even as tight and precise as it is — and that energy is infectious as The Great White Dope plays out its 10 tracks, whatever speed they might be moving at a given stretch.

At 2:01, opener “Krokodil Dental Plan” is a slamming head-turner of a punkish sprint, but with Cadena‘s teasing “Let me see/See your smile” for a chorus, the song definitely leaves an impression as it runs past. It’s my pleasure to be able to host the premiere of the song for streaming (and apparently also download, for those who’d make it their own), to be followed in the coming weeks by an interview with Balch about the evolution of the project. More info on the record after the track, which is on the player below.

Hope you enjoy:

“The Great White Dope” is the followup to 2013’s critically acclaimed “Mannequin” LP, and boasts a lineup consisting of members Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu / Smile), Scott Thomas Reeder (Kyuss / The Obsessed) and now introducing Tony Adolescent of legendary punk band The Adolescents on vocals.

“The Great White Dope” raises the bar from the band’s previous release, to create one of the most aggressive and mind-blowing albums of the past decade.

Sun & Sail Club is:
Bob Balch (Guitars / Fu Manchu)
Scott Reeder (Drums / Fu Manchu, Smile)
Scott Thomas Reeder (Bass / Kyuss, Fireball Ministry, The Obsessed)
Tony Adolescent (Vocals / The Adolescents)

“The Great White Dope” Track List:
1. Krokodil Dental Plan
2. Dresden Fireball Freakout Flight
3. Baba Yaga Bastard Patrol
4. Migraine With A Chainsaw Reduction
5. Level Up & Shut It Down
6. Fever Blister & The Great White Dope
7. Full Tilt Panic
8. Alien Rant Factory
9. Inside Traitor Outside View
10. Cypherpunk Roulette

Sun and Sail Club on Thee Facebooks

Sun and Sail Club preorders

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One Response to “Sun and Sail Club Premiere “Krokodil Dental Plan” from The Great White Dope

  1. Tume says:

    I’m glad I pre ordered this one! Can’t wait.

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